Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.5

Above Suspicion Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 22, 2021

It may indicate nothing other than the often baffling vagaries of show business in general and the film industry in particular, but it’s nonetheless at least passingly interesting that Above Suspicion bears an actual copyright date of 2017 in its closing credits, but has a 2019 release year listed on the IMDb (in Lebanon, of all places), but is only appearing in the United States now, more or less half way through 2021. That delay, or at least rather long gestational period, may seem especially odd since Above Suspicion is one of those “ripped from the headlines” affairs that comes replete with the seemingly obligatory “based on a true story” imprimatur, and it features a rather unexpected performance by Game of Thrones’ Emilia Clarke as a southern fried vixen named Susan Smith who was a real life FBI informant who bedded the Kentucky agent assigned to her, and then paid with her life for the effort. In fact, the film begins a la Sunset Boulevard, with a corpse, in this case Susan’s, narrating the proceedings and providing quasi-metaphysical musings about the wending state of affairs that ultimately brought Susan to her demise.

As Susan relays via some voiceover as the film begins, being dead has left her with too much time to think, and thinking may not have been Susan's strong suit when she was among the living. That said, Above Suspicion details some rather cunning strategies that Susan employs as she desperately seeks to escape the stifling confines of Pikeville, Kentucky, where the closing of a mine has left scores of people unemployed, with the resultant "major industry" in the town consigned mostly to drug dealing. In that regard, Susan is a perhaps unwilling accomplice of her former husband, a drug dealer with the probably ironically meaningful handle of Cash (Johnny Knoxville). Cash is a wastrel, a guy who sleeps all day, even while their kids languish without food or clothing in the dilapidated "double wide" the four call home, despite the fact that Cash and Susan have been divorced for some time.

Despite being outwardly much more upwardly mobile than Susan, FBI agent Mark Putnam (Jack Huston) is not exactly thrilled that he's been stationed in Pikeville, ostensibly to look for a robbery suspect, but soon enveloped by the fetid underworld activity running rampant in the town. After a bust involving Cash, Mark senses Susan's desperation and decides to use it for his own purposes, urging the needy if resilient woman to turn informant. It's not long before a passionate affair erupts, despite the fact that Mark is newly married to Kathy (Sophie Lowe). There's an unrelenting march toward disaster that the film has already provided the "denouement" of, and so there's really not much suspense involved, other than to watch two morally compromised people attempting to use each other for their own purposes, with tragedy and death resulting, to no one's surprise.

If the overall trajectory of this tale is seemingly foreordained, the film provides really interesting opportunities for several cast members. Clarke acquits herself rather well as the scheming Susan, who sees Mark as both the rare example of a man who supposedly "really cares", and also as her presumed ticket out of her personal hellscape. She does a decent southern accent, with occasional missteps, but more importantly she is able to toe an impressive line between hardscrabble grittiness and something approaching vulnerability. Jack Huston has a less showy part for a number of reasons, but he also does a good balancing act detailing both Mark's honorable intentions as well as his slimier, more ambitious, aspects. Another potential surprise for some audience members may be the unexpectedly good work from Johnny Knoxville as the guy some might expect to be Susan's murderer, considering his abusive behaviors.

The underlying story here is certainly tawdry and near Lifetime tv movie-esque to work on its own kind of smarmy merits, but Chris Gerolmo's screenplay tries to stuff in too many sidebars, and Philip Noyce's directorial flourishes often do little more than call attention to themselves. The screenplay is kind of interesting in that Gerolmo, in the "making of" featurette included on this disc as the sole supplement, mentions it was the fact that Susan was an addict that drew him to the project, which makes the fact that Susan's addiction seems almost tangential to all the other soap operatic dynamics at play somewhat ironic. That's especially evident once the character goes through an almost Job-like series of misfortunes which sees Clarke repeatedly made up with a variety of wounds.

Above Suspicion Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Above Suspicion is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. The closing credits for the film thank Arri Alexa cameras, so I'm assuming that's how the film was shot and/or captured, and I'm also assuming there was a 2K DI. This has both the pluses and minuses that I often cite in Alexa material I've personally reviewed. When lighting conditions allow, detail levels are often superb, with nice, precise renderings on everything from fabrics to facial pores. Even in some heavily graded material, fine detail is still quite evident more often than not, and as can be seen in several of the screenshots accompanying this review, Above Suspicion tends to ping pong between blue and yellow sequences, with only relatively rare "normal" grading employed. The major minus in this presentation is the frequent murkiness of some of the most dimly lit material, and in that regard it's perhaps arguable that the yellow grading tends to add to the perception of haziness more than the blue material.

Above Suspicion Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Above Suspicion features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix that features some intermittent immersion in some of the outdoor material, where ambient environmental sounds can waft through the surround channels, as well as a couple of more hyperbolic sequences where various mayhem breaks out. Some of the interior material, as in some of the domestic scenes in the double wide shared by Cash and Susan, can at least occasionally offer good directionality. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly with no problems whatsoever. Optional English and Spanish subtitles are available.

Above Suspicion Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Dangerous Ambitions: Making Above Suspicion (HD; 19:28) is a decent EPK with a bunch of interviews. Director Philip Noyce sounds like he's reading from a script to me.

Above Suspicion Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Emilia Clarke is probably the best reason to check out Above Suspicion, a film which purports to be "ripped from the headlines", which it actually is, at least in its broader outlines, but which wants to tart up the proceedings with "colorful" supporting characters and stylistic flourishes which seem patently at odds with a supposedly "based on true life" tale. Since the story begins at the end, so to speak, there's too little suspense despite a surplus of psychological angst demonstrated by several key characters. Technical merits are generally solid for those who are considering a purchase.